Chapter 186 Stone Giants

"Not heretics," Hao Ren said, guessing what had happened based on the state of the camp. "Probably stone giants…"

"Stone giants?" the bearded man asked, surprised. "What are those?"

At that moment, Becky caught up. Remembering that the Sacred Scepter had been missing for months, and that the four ascetics were still unclear about what had happened in their homeland, she explained, "That happened after you went missing. About two months ago, we encountered a huge monster when we crossed the Dragon Spine Mountains…"

Becky briefly explained the situation with the stone giants and how the entire Kingdom of Holletta had fallen into chaos after the Sacred Scepter went missing. The bearded man's usually wooden face finally showed some expression. He frowned and subconsciously placed his hand on the pouch at his waist. "Monsters have appeared in the Dragon Spine Mountains, and they want to break into the Sacred Lake? Could it be related to the Sacred Scepter leaving this world?"

Hao Ren casually tossed a broken piece of wood on the ground and looked up at the bearded man. "We thought so at first too. We thought the Sacred Scepter might be some kind of suppressive artifact, and that its departure from the Dream Plane led to the resurrection of ancient monsters sealed in the Dragon Spine Mountains, but now it seems that this guess is not very reliable…"

The data terminal explained quietly, "That thing is just a database."

The group was very worried about the situation in Leyton Town, which was the only way from the Dragon Spine Mountains to Blood Lake. The destruction of this outpost meant that Leyton Town would probably not escape disaster. But according to the state of the outpost, the attack should have happened several days ago, so there was no point in rushing to Leyton Town at this point. Hao Ren decided to look around here for any clues that might be useful in the future.

As soon as Lily heard the words "look for clues," her racial instinct burned uncontrollably. She immediately lowered her head and scurried around the camp. Hao Ren knew that Lily was reliable in such matters, so he followed her around aimlessly. Lily dug a hole here and grabbed a wall there. In no time, she had turned the nearest few houses upside down. Finally, she lay on the ground, sniffing and listening, and after a long time she finally locked onto a spot. She immediately waved her paws and dug down, and in a moment she was almost able to bury herself. Vivian watched from the side and couldn't help but say to her, "I asked you to find something, not bury bones…"

"Don't make a fuss, I'm looking for clues," Lily's tail wagged on the edge of the pit, her voice coming from the bottom of the pit. "Didn't you notice that although there is blood in this camp, there are no bodies? Judging from the tragic state of the scene, I don't think the soldiers in this camp could have evacuated in an orderly manner – even the walls were smashed to pieces. This was a crushing defeat."

Hao Ren thought that Lily was just digging a hole at random, but he didn't expect that the girl could actually analyze something. He looked at the surrounding situation and suddenly felt that what Lily said made sense. "That's right… Where are the bodies… By the way, what are you digging?"

Lily didn't look up, her voice getting lower and lower. "I'm not digging for anything… I just suddenly heard something moving down here…"

The husky's digging skills were not small. Hao Ren watched as the girl's body descended at a speed visible to the naked eye, with only clumps of gravel constantly being thrown out of the pit. By the time he reacted, he was already buried to his knees. He looked down at the gravel, his expression strange. "... This entire highland is made of stone…"

Vivian, however, was turning over another, not entirely malicious, thought. "What do you think would happen if I blew a gust of wind and buried her?"

Hao Ren: "Can't you two be peaceful for one day?!"

While Hao Ren and Vivian were chatting idly, they suddenly heard Lily let out a short exclamation from the bottom of the pit. "Ah!"

Then came the sound of rubble collapsing and heavy objects falling from below. When he looked down again, Lily's figure had completely disappeared into a large, dark hole. Hao Ren looked anxiously at the hole. "Lily? What's going on down there?"

A burst of red light suddenly lit up from the depths of the dark cave, and Lily's voice followed. "There's a very deep cave down here! It's a tunnel!"

The others heard the commotion and gathered around. They first exclaimed at Lily's ability to dig holes, and then several people's eyes fell on Becky at the same time. Nangong Wuyue pointed to the cave. "Is there a cellar under this camp?"

Becky shrugged. "How would I know? I'm just a mercenary, not a soldier here – but in theory, there shouldn't be a cellar or tunnel underneath. This is just a small station for guarding and sentry duty, and the surrounding area is unstable滩地 (tan di, tidal flats). Who would be full enough to dig a tunnel under here?"

Then Becky stomped on the ground. "Not to mention that this entire camp is built on a giant rock."

Hao Ren couldn't help but think of the last time he went through a tunnel. He still vividly remembered the experience of breaking into an underground palace in England and being chased by hundreds of tin cans. Tunnels had not left him with any good impression. Vivian also smacked her lips. "Why is it that anything with a conspiracy involves a cave?"

At this time, Lily shouted again from below: "Hey! Are you coming down or not? If no one comes down, I'm going to jump up, everyone get away from the entrance…"

Hao Ren gritted his teeth. "Wait! We're coming down!"

The group filed in one after another. Fortunately, none of them were ordinary people, and Lily had made a fire to illuminate the area, so it was not difficult to jump down into this deep cave. After jumping down, Hao Ren saw what Lily was using to light the way: she had summoned her Icefire Double Claws, and was now using the blazing flame claws as torches. He had to admit, they were really bright, and even Vivian couldn't help but praise them. "The Flame of Joy is pretty useful…"

Lily bared her teeth. "If you mention that name again, I'm going to get mad at you!"

The bearded man walked around and looked around, muttering as he touched the smooth stone wall, "It was opened with magic."

Hao Ren then paid attention to observing the surrounding environment. He found that the tunnel that Lily had dug was indeed something special: the entire tunnel had no stone or wood support, and the pit wall was integrated, and he couldn't even see any cracks or holes on the stone wall, as if it had been drilled out of an entire piece of rock. If he were on Earth, he would suspect that it was the work of a small tunneling machine, but here, according to the bearded man, it seemed to be the effect of magic?

Becky was also considered half a mage, and she touched the wall thoughtfully. "To be able to open up a tunnel of this scale, at least a Archmage-level figure is needed, and the tunnel itself is still long-term solidified, which requires even higher strength. A small sentry post wouldn't need this kind of arrangement."

"It seems like there's a bit of a bloody smell here too," Vivian frowned. She was very sensitive to blood, so much so that her "sense of smell" in this regard was on par with Lily's. "Strange, there are no bodies here… Where did the bloody smell come from?"

This strange and dark tunnel extended far to both sides. Hao Ren closed his eyes and carefully sensed it. He noticed a slight breeze coming from a certain direction, so he pointed in that direction. "Let's look in this direction first and see where it leads."

The others had no objections, so Lily held up the Flame of Joy… Okay, let's not mention that name, let's just say she was holding up a torch to lead the way. Led by the husky, the group walked down the tunnel, everyone's nerves were tense. Originally, Hao Ren thought that this was just a simple monster attack, but this underground tunnel, which was shaped by magic and had a "fresh" bloody smell, pointed the clues to humans. He felt that the situation was a bit wrong, and he didn't know if it was his sixth sense, but he instinctively felt that this matter was also related to Blood Lake.

If it was related to Blood Lake, it was very likely related to the "Goddess." The doomsday legend of this world was always a dark shadow in Hao Ren's heart. He felt that this legend was closely related to the strange state of the Dream Plane and the surface world, so as long as it was related to it, he could not put it aside.

However, after walking all the way in the tunnel, the group did not encounter anything. They finally discovered that the tunnel gradually went upwards, and the rock shell shaped by magic also came to an abrupt end when it was about to touch the ground. A layer of not very tight rubble blocked the exit of the tunnel, and they could feel a very fresh wind blowing in from the cracks in the stones. Lily quickly dug away this layer of stones, and the group drilled out and found that the sky was full of stars: they were back on the ground.

Hao Ren looked back and found that the lakeside outpost had disappeared somewhere, it seemed that he had run quite far underground.

"Is that it?" Lily muttered a little dejectedly. "I thought I could discover some big conspiracy."

"What are you expecting?" Vivian glanced at Lily. "Isn't it good to be safe and sound?"

Lily puffed out her cheeks. "It's boring, even if a group of little monsters ran out at this time, it would be good for me to fight, otherwise there would be no sense of adventure at all."

As soon as Lily finished speaking, Hao Ren suddenly heard a rumbling, heavy footstep coming from the twisted woodland not far away!

Vivian slapped Lily on the head. "You jinx!"